I played Libertalia for the first time last night. I really liked it. The shared crew cards per round was a new mechanic for me and I enjoyed it. We played with 4 and I'm told it scales to 6 players very well. And it was short, even with 2 people learning. We finished in about 45 minutes.

Dungeon Delve, a fairly cheap dice rolling game is trucking along (then again it's a TMG game, and they tend to do well).

I went in for this one too. It's cheap - $15. I also x-posted this in the Kickstarter thread, but he's done a pretty interesting post on the finances of the game and kickstarter. Given that he has done this before (and had issues, IIRC), I have high hopes that he'll come close to his initial schedule.

Of course, I felt that way about O.G.R.E. too and it has slipped months and months.

It's tough when you have two kids 6 and 10; they both love board games but different ones. The 10-year-old likes head to head, and I've got to get another one to get him away from Stratego (ugh, can't believe I liked that as a kid). The 6-year-old reallllllly wants me to buy Mice and Mystics (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1247 ... nd-mystics) and I may end up doing so. Coop games are a plus, I see enough fighting between them without board games...

Mage Wars looks pretty cool, and we might be able to play 2 vs dad (though if Runebound and Talisman are any guide, they don't need any help dispatching dad's *** in games).Kinda Magic-ish but I like how you can pick any spell from your spellbook at any time.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq6O1aqMHTY

I'm also considering the LOTR card game, King of Tokyo and there's an upcoming Pathfinder card game that looks pretty interesting (RPG card games seem to be on the upswing).

I know I've posted about it here before, but I find games that are competitive without being head to head work well with my kids. Things like Alhambra goes over well, since you're not directly messing up someone. Dixit is also always a lot of fun, although the kids clues can be anywhere from completely obvious to completely cryptic when playing with the adults.

I've decided Agicola is my fave board game. It plays great from 2-5 players, games are tight, and so far very varied. Almost no random element (we have some house rules on the minor/occupations that reduce that aspects potential for imbalance).

I'm super stoked there's a beta for a computer version in progress right now.

The people behind TableTop bring you TableTop Day! They're trying to organize an international day for board games. See this video for details. Hope that someone organizes something in Atlanta.

It'd be nice if they actually did another episode of Tabletop. I shouldn't complain about something that's free, but sheesh, two weeks between shows is bad enough, but then this and it feels like they won't have anything between mid-February and the end of March.

I played Libertalia for the first time last night. I really liked it. The shared crew cards per round was a new mechanic for me and I enjoyed it. We played with 4 and I'm told it scales to 6 players very well. And it was short, even with 2 people learning. We finished in about 45 minutes.

I have several plays in now, and it's still great. It does scale well to 6, though the feel of the game changes across the range. At the low end, it's very much a game of predicting what others will play. At the high end, this is much more difficult to do, and the game becomes more chaotic (but still fun) and you need to focus on your own cards more and just hope other people don't muck it up too much.

I've started to go to a weekly board game night one of my FLGS, and am enjoying it. Now that I've got the itch I'd like to try to get some non-gamer frinds and family into playing some games at home. Any good suggestions for gateway games? It needs to be fairly simple, not take too long to play, and not require special knowledge to be fun (i.e. Fluxx and munchkin would fit but the people I want to get playing wouldn't get a lot of the humor in those). I'm considering ticket to ride (it's available at chapters and I have a gift certificate)and maybe pandemic so far.

I could talk about gateway games all day. Light strategy games remain my favorite. Plenty of "party" games like Dixit might be suggested, but I will stick with family strategy games here.

You mentioned Ticket to Ride. That's the gold standard.

Pandemic is also fantastic; I'd recommend playing with open information if you are teaching newcomers. Flash Point might be a better option for you, though. I prefer Pandemic, but Flash Point is dead simple to teach in the family version and has a more "visceral" theme.

Bohnanza is solid.

Incan Gold is a great light press-your-luck game and works well across 3-8 players.

Escape: The Curse of the Temple is another co-op option. The strict time limit is nice. I consider this a much more family-friendly version of Space Alert.

For Sale: great little filler, with few rules but emergent play.

No Thanks is in a similar vein. Only a couple rules, but still interesting every time. Should be in every gamer's collection.

Get Bit is fun with kids. Not that it's a kids' game per se, but they will enjoy the little robots losing limbs. My nephew always wants to "be the shark."

King of Tokyo is easy to teach, and has just enough choice in there to make you feel like what you do matters, while still being a luck-oriented game.

Can't Stop is another chance-based game option.

Lost Cities is perfect for two. The board game version goes up to four, but the card game is cheaper and more refined.

Aquaretto is probably the best of the -etto games, and has a very friendly theme.

I could come up with dozens more, but I think those all fit the bill. Happy to expand on any of them.

Pandemic is also fantastic; I'd recommend playing with open information if you are teaching newcomers.

I always wondered about this. The rules state that hands are not open but I seem to recall that you may ask somone if they have x, y, or z at any time. So I'm not sure what the point of a closed hand is?

Pandemic is also fantastic; I'd recommend playing with open information if you are teaching newcomers.

I always wondered about this. The rules state that hands are not open but I seem to recall that you may ask somone if they have x, y, or z at any time. So I'm not sure what the point of a closed hand is?

To force people to communicateIn addition, if there's someone on your table who likes to take control of the game and make others' moves for them; you can just feed that controller less information and still have your game.

Correct. The hidden information is an attempt to prevent quarterbacking.

I find that, in practice, a quarterback will do their thing regardless of the obstacles placed in their way. Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Flash Point, etc. are all susceptible to this, and I feel the only real solution is to not play with those people (or tell them to shape up).

I could talk about gateway games all day. Light strategy games remain my favorite. Plenty of "party" games like Dixit might be suggested, but I will stick with family strategy games here.

...

Bohnanza is solid.

...

Bohnanza and Carcassonne were my "gateway" games. Love them.

FWIW, I've had maybe a 50% success rate introducing Bohnanza to friends/family, but everyone I've introduced Carcassonne too loves it. It is longer and a touch more complicated than Bohnanza (particular b/c of the scoring rules) but once the first game is over all the new players were clamoring to play again so they could revise their strategies.

I've decided Agicola is my fave board game. It plays great from 2-5 players, games are tight, and so far very varied. Almost no random element (we have some house rules on the minor/occupations that reduce that aspects potential for imbalance).

While I loves me some Agricola, non-random isn't how I'd describe it. The card draft helps with the card imbalances, but the ordering of job cards can make a huge difference, depending on who is first player. If you want a really non-random game, try any 18xx.

My group has gravitated away from Agricola, mostly because it is too 'tight'. It's really punishing if you make one wrong move. Well, that and there are so many different worker placement games to play, hard to stick with one. I'd still say Agricola is the best 3 player game I probably have. (And it's actually best with 3 too) We've house ruled out a few of the cards too, specifically ones that score huge points for doing something you'd do anyway if you can...

I wish I could get Through the Ages to the table more, as it always reminds me of Agricola, kind of how it can be unforgiving for small mistakes. It's not worker placement, but the people that struggle to ever get anywhere in Agricola struggle in TTA also.

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've started to go to a weekly board game night one of my FLGS, and am enjoying it. Now that I've got the itch I'd like to try to get some non-gamer frinds and family into playing some games at home. Any good suggestions for gateway games? It needs to be fairly simple, not take too long to play, and not require special knowledge to be fun (i.e. Fluxx and munchkin would fit but the people I want to get playing wouldn't get a lot of the humor in those). I'm considering ticket to ride (it's available at chapters and I have a gift certificate)and maybe pandemic so far.

If you are looking to get them into euros, there's always the gold standard of Catan. (Personally I'm biased against Ticket, even though I have to play it for a category at Puffing Billy tournaments, because folks sit and play it for hours and hours online)

Maybe Puerto Rico also, as with a new group it wont be as 'figured out' and it will lead to wanting to play more euros.

Alien Frontiers is a great game, and it's really easy to pick up and play also.

I prefer Puerto Rico over Agricola (not that I've played either much. Puerto Rico twice vrs Agricola once). My main issue with Agricola is that it is too limited in actions. Only one person can farm per season. Only one person can build/ etc. Puerto Rico seems more "open" if that makes sense. I do like how Agricola forces diversity though.

I still need to play Catan and Carscaconne. I need to play more board games in general...

FYI- Cracked recently put up an article titled "6 board bames that ruined the genre" (or something like that. Being blocked at work). The article it self is kind of meh, but the cool thing is that for each bad game, they recommend a new, better, game. Stuff like Catan, Powergrid, robot rally, and kings of Tokyo.

FYI- Cracked recently put up an article titled "6 board bames that ruined the genre" (or something like that. Being blocked at work). The article it self is kind of meh, but the cool thing is that for each bad game, they recommend a new, better, game. Stuff like Catan, Powergrid, robot rally, and kings of Tokyo.

Point of information: they recommend Ricochet Robots, not Robo Rally.

They certainly could just as easily recommended Robo Rally, to be sure, but there it is.

I think I'm going to grab ticket to ride first, just because I'm pretty sure I can get a few people to actually play it. To me it seems to be an improvement over "classic" board games everyone grew up with without being too different or complicated. Haven't decided on anything else yet.

Board games seem to be really taking off around here right now. A new store specifically focused on selling games and providing a (free) place for people to meet up and play them just opened, and there are three different weekly board game nights that all seem to have a pretty good following with 20+ people showing up and bringing games.

I got my boardgame fix over the weekend. One of the local gorups had their monthly meetup. I ended up playing Tammany hall, and small world. Of the two, I tihnk think I prefer Tammany hall. There seems to be more direct competition in it, and less luck. Small world was still fun though.

Our D&D group has kind of evolved into a general board game day lately. We've been playing a lot of Catan and yeah that game is pretty rad. My wife gets frustrated easily though and a couple games where nothing rolled her way has kind of put her off it.

played mage knight yesterday (the intro scenario, and a blitz competitive scenario). i won both by a large margin with tovak, but quite often i was 1 something away from doing what i wanted to accomplish.

I will further support Carcassone as a gateway game. My wife really enjoys games but up until Carcassone she mainly wanted to play "light" ones like Catchphrase, Cranium, Apples-to-Apples/Cards Against Humanity, etc. Then my friend and I got her to play Carcassone with us and it was instant love. Now she wants to try games with a similar mix of tactics and strategy without taking an hour to setup (i.e. Axis and Allies is out), so we're going to try Settlers of Catan next.

One I like I haven't seen mentioned is Incan Gold. Simple mechanics, with the sort of press your luck mechanic that makes gambling addictive. Plays 3-8, so its flexible for however many you happen to have.

One I like I haven't seen mentioned is Incan Gold. Simple mechanics, with the sort of press your luck mechanic that makes gambling addictive. Plays 3-8, so its flexible for however many you happen to have.

Yep, that was in my Big List above. Really great. Both Incan Gold and No Thanks are notable for taking a tiny rule set and making a genuinely interesting game out of it. In each case, your choice as a player is just "Yes or no?" repeatedly. And yet that decision can be wrenching each time.

I think Coop games make better gateway games than head-to-head competitive ones. But that's just me.

The problem with coop games (and I can admit that I do this) is when you end up with the more advanced players basically playing everyone else's turn. This is the reason why my wife hates playing pandemic. So while they can be good intro games you just have to make sure you don't try playing for them.

Anyone have and suggestions for finding a new board gaming group? I haven't really played anything since moving more than a year ago and my local gaming store is more focussed on card games than board games.

I think Coop games make better gateway games than head-to-head competitive ones. But that's just me.

The problem with coop games (and I can admit that I do this) is when you end up with the more advanced players basically playing everyone else's turn. This is the reason why my wife hates playing pandemic. So while they can be good intro games you just have to make sure you don't try playing for them.

Yeah- in my experience, I think the best gateway games are what I'd term "competitive but not adversarial"- IE, you're competing with one another, but the focus is not on direct conflict. Carcasonne is a great example; while you CAN intentionally play tiles as "screw you", more generally it's going to be about optimizing for yourself. There's a lot to be said for this for getting beginners into a game; I think the big benefit is that while they have to make their own choices, their gameplay won't suffer directly from going against a more experienced opponent.

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Anyone have and suggestions for finding a new board gaming group? I haven't really played anything since moving more than a year ago and my local gaming store is more focussed on card games than board games.

Yeah, I'm having the same problem. Just moved to the area a few months ago, and it's pretty rural (college town, though. I'm probably a bit old to try and horn in on any campus gaming groups, but maybe there's a grad student population...)

I'm not even sure there's a FLGS around here, either, so I can't even rely on good old board postings.

I can always try and recruit non-gamers, but in my experience, that works best if you have at least a few gamers already there. "Hey, X and I are going to play a game of Settlers, you interested?" is a lot easier than "Hey, X, Y, and Z, come over to my place and learn about trading bricks for sheep!"

Yeah- in my experience, I think the best gateway games are what I'd term "competitive but not adversarial"- IE, you're competing with one another, but the focus is not on direct conflict. Carcassonne is a great example; while you CAN intentionally play tiles as "screw you", more generally it's going to be about optimizing for yourself.

I think Coop games make better gateway games than head-to-head competitive ones. But that's just me.

The problem with coop games (and I can admit that I do this) is when you end up with the more advanced players basically playing everyone else's turn. This is the reason why my wife hates playing pandemic. So while they can be good intro games you just have to make sure you don't try playing for them.

Yeah- in my experience, I think the best gateway games are what I'd term "competitive but not adversarial"- IE, you're competing with one another, but the focus is not on direct conflict.

I think Coop games make better gateway games than head-to-head competitive ones. But that's just me.

The problem with coop games (and I can admit that I do this) is when you end up with the more advanced players basically playing everyone else's turn. This is the reason why my wife hates playing pandemic. So while they can be good intro games you just have to make sure you don't try playing for them.

Yeah- in my experience, I think the best gateway games are what I'd term "competitive but not adversarial"- IE, you're competing with one another, but the focus is not on direct conflict.

Anyone have and suggestions for finding a new board gaming group? I haven't really played anything since moving more than a year ago and my local gaming store is more focussed on card games than board games.

I had to create mine. I trained 5 guys in the ways of eurogaming, and now they're pros. They played Agricola for the first time a couple weeks ago and tore through it like it was Candy Land. I was like

Anyone have and suggestions for finding a new board gaming group? I haven't really played anything since moving more than a year ago and my local gaming store is more focussed on card games than board games.

I get a lot of hits at meetup.com searching in the category of "Games." I also know some of the groups I game with have Facebook groups. I don't facebook, though, so I can't offer any tips on searching for them.

I do know that once you find an in, the gamers will definitely know of more groups. In my area, there are tons of groups that run once a month, and have lots of players in common, so you can get invites to plenty of nights once you get introduced around. Of course there are also gaming shops that have more frequent nights, but you said you couldn't find any of those...

I don't want to sound like I'm shilling, since it could be a terrible game in the end, but if you are at all interested in Dungeon Delve, you probably want to get it on Kickstarter. Looks like the retail version will be $20 instead of $15, not to mention that the kickstart version will come with the first "expansion" which looks like it will be $5.